New Jersey 101.5 – Stay-at-home moms suing New Jersey over right to sell cookies Read More: Stay-at-home moms suing New Jersey over right to sell cookies

ELIZABETH — A group of stay-at-home mothers are suing the state Health Department in a challenge to a law prohibiting home-baked goods from being sold to the public.

The lawsuit by the New Jersey Home Bakers Association and three of its members argues that the law is discriminatory because it allows home-baked goods to be sold to support charities. The law, meanwhile, doesn’t apply to other non-potentially hazardous foods like chocolate, candies or pastas.

The law requires bakers to rent commercial kitchens, which can cost them tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Erica Smith, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group that is representing the bakers, says the regulations eat into the profits of entrepreneurs, many of whom are raising children or are disabled.